Emporia SuperEasy Mobile Phone Review

Reviewed by Helen O

I was really pleased to be chosen to review the Emporia SUPEREasy mobile phone, least not because I have an aging mum, who finds modern mobile phones overly complicated, to the point that I hear her moan about it every time I see her! So hearing that I’d been chosen for a mobile phone that was branded as SUPEREasy was music to my ears and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it, to show her!

The mobile took a couple of weeks to arrive and was well packaged. The phone’s box itself is an outer sleeve, in which you can find the main box, which is sturdy, yet recyclable. The sleeve gave an indication of the apps which can be used on the phone, although these were not in English, but most were easy to interpret, but this may confuse some of the intended audience. Inside the box, you will find:
1 x Smartphone
1 x Battery cover
1 x Spare battery cover without emergency button
1 x Charging cradle
1 x Battery (already inserted)
1 x Mains plug
1 x USB charging cable
1 x Headset for hands-free calls
1 x Instruction manual

The phone arrived unlocked and as such after the recommended 4 hours of charging, I inserted my own SIM card straight into the device, without having to be tied to a specific network. It was easy to copy my existing contacts over to the smartphone, without any additional complications, which was a bonus. It was also easy to get connected onto the WiFi straightaway.

The instruction manual was succinct and straightforward to follow, taking us through the steps for using the phone for the first time. The phone also uses the Android operating system, which both myself and my mum are familiar with, so that was also pretty straight forward.

I was impressed with the look of the Smartphone, it was modern looking and not too clumpy, considering the intended audience. It was also a good size to hold in the palm of your hand, not too large. There are also 2 large buttons at the bottom of the phone, one green (to accept call) and one red (to reject call, but also doubles- up as a ‘go back’ button).

I liked the use of the charging cradle, with the USB cable plugged into directly, rather than into the phone. Although, there is an ability to plug directly into the phone too (at the top)

My mum and I communicate daily via WhatsApp, so this was one of the first apps that we downloaded. We like the ability to share photos, particularly of my children, as mum can’t really get out and about as much as she used to. The Emporia SUPEREasy comes with a 13 Megapixel camera, which is good enough to take a fairly decent picture to share via email or Whatsapp. It’s easy to change the settings including turning the flash on and off, changing the direction of the camera to forward facing and also changing to video setting.

I also really liked how easy it was to take a screenshot, particularly compared with my current Smartphone. If you hold down the power button on the side, you can select an option of Power Off, Restart or Screenshot. I thought this was a pretty neat way of doing it.

One of the unique characteristics of this phone is the presence of the Emergency button, which is positioned on the back cover, underneath the camera. There is an option to change the cover, to one without an emergency button, if the user feels this is unnecessary and a separate cover is provided for this purpose. I was fiddling with the phone to see what buttons did what and hadn’t realised (without reading the instruction manual) that if you hold and press the heart shaped emergency button on the back of the phone, that it would call the Emergency services straight away (without having input my own personal emergency contacts), so this left me a bit red-faced, having to explain that I was simply testing a button. A message came up on my phone afterwards prompting me to restart the phone afterwards, otherwise any incoming calls would be automatically answered for a while afterwards.

A couple of other useful features I’ve noticed about this phone are the magnifier, which can be used as a digital magnifying glass and also the QR scanner; QR codes are becoming increasingly popular these days, so the phone user won’t feel left out. It doesn’t have any biometric scanners, so users are reliant on remembering their passcode, which may pose an issue with the intended user, if they were to have memory issues.

I also found when writing a message that the letter buttons were relatively small and as such, if you have larger fingers, this may cause some frustration for hitting the wrong letter. My mum has poor eyesight, due to cataracts and this caused a bit of an issue for her, upon first attempt.

I did a quick search and it would appear that protective cover for this particular model are readily available at an additional cost, which would be beneficial if the phone is to be taken out of the house.

The Emporia SUPEREasy phone also comes complete with a 2 year manufacturers guarantee has an RRP of £210, although at the time of review, some cheaper deals were available via Curry’s and Amazon. The RRP is not expensive for the product you get, compared to a lot of other Smartphones available on the market. I would recommend this phone to people like my mum, who really want a phone to be a phone with the ability to make calls and send messages, with the added Emergency button feature for peace of mind. It would certainly make a nice Christmas gift for an elderly relative.

Rating: 4/5

RRP: £210

Buy here: https://shop.emporiatelecom.co.uk/emporiasupereasy